Saturday, September 30, 2006

Detainees, Terrorists, Suspects, and Us?


I was disappointed this week to see that Congress passed a bill that allows the arrest, torture, and detention of suspected terrorists. The idea that we are willing to cross a line between cruel and inhumane acts and American ideals bothers me. I realize that terrorists are something to be feared, but if we look at the very nature of "terrorism" I believe that we are headed down the wrong road here.

Terrorism by its very nature is an attempt to change something through fear. Simple definition, I know, but that is really all it is. If someone doesn't like something that you are doing and uses violence to get their way, then that is terrorism. We make changes through fear, and by doing so we allow terrorists to accomplish their goals. Kids learn this on the playground.... The bully demands lunch money or he/she will give you a thrashing, so you give them the lunch money. Powerful people preying on the weak. Well, I believe that the global consensus is that we are not a weak country. In this case, the lunch money represents our fundamental rights. We do not need to bow to the threats of the bully, so why are we giving them our lunch money?

In this case, we have completely suspended "Habeus Corpus" for suspected terrorists. For international readers, our constitution guarantees that no citizen can be held for more than 24 hours without formal charges being filed. If there are no formal charges, then the constitution commands release.

Now, where I tend to get nervous about this is that the bill does not clearly specify foreign nationals. I guess that a US citizen could be a terrorist (Isn't that what Timothy McVeigh was called?) and commit terrorist acts. Under the provisions of the new law, someone suspected of terrorism can be held indefinitely, tortured, and prosecuted in a closed trial.

I look at things that have come of the Patriot Act over the past several years, and knowing that it has been interpreted very broadly in order to allow electronic monitoring of US citizens, as well as other curtailing of our rights. I fear that such interpretations can happen with this bill.

If this happens, then indeed, the terrorists have accomplished their mission. They will have changed our fundamental way of life through violent acts. I am by no means suggesting that violence is a way to achieve a goal. I just believe that if we step back and take a broader, more historical view of the whole governmental reaction to the 9/11 terrorist act that we may be going too far.

In 1755 Benjamin Franklin said:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Now, I am sure that entire conferences could be held to discuss this and someone somewhere would interpret it differently, but the essence of the thing is that we can't curtail our rights to protect ourselves. If we give up our rights, what are we protecting?

One possible solution would be retribution - Pax Romanus.... Find the nest and destroy it. I don't think that we should do this indiscriminately, but if we find that a terrorist act was committed by someone operating out of a foreign country, then we go in and destroy their headquarters. Since terrorism crosses political boundaries, there is no reason that our response shouldn't cross them as well. I believe that we could put up with the indignity of other countries over sovereignty issues. If we do this seriously and consistently, sooner or later the terrorists will have to understand that there is not a positive outcome to a terrorist act.

Anyway, that is the end of the political diatribe for this morning. I stand prepared to reply to comments, flames, and opinions. I purposely left my statements very broad in the hopes that it will spur a discussion.

Our Fearless Leader, again...

I have been very good lately in not pointing out the shortcomings of our fearless leader, but I just can't resist. I think that they speak for themselves......







I'm their leader, did you see where they went?




Clever Advertising

I got these in an email this morning and I thought they were very cool. I think that I would like to see a trend like this continue since for the most part it appeals to everyone, yet it is unique enough to get your attention.


















Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I've always loved this joke....

A few days after Christmas, a mother was working in the kitchen listening to her young son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now, cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause we're going down the tracks."

The mother went nuts and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."

Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."

As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the bitch in the kitchen."

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Today's winning email

I got this from my friend Jim this morning, and with the exception of some minor details, this is excruciatingly accurate as far as the state of things in the US these days..... I just can't understand how we could have let education go down the tubes as far as we have......


HOW DO THESE PEOPLE SURVIVE?
ONE... Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. " We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

TWO... I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider", looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened.

THREE... A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy."

FOUR... I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long
walk."

FIVE... Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing paper. What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies.

SIX... I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and the whole thing generally looked like an extra in "Twister." I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went in the back to make a sandwich.

SEVEN... My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?"

EIGHT... Police in Radnor, PA interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.

NINE... A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and should be fine, the mother says, "I just gave him some ant killer...." Dispatcher: "Rush him to the Emergency Room!"


"If you're going to be dumb, you'd better be tough." --- Jim Hensley

Saturday, September 23, 2006

It has been a good week

Well, I started my new job this week and I love it. I can finally use some of my analytical and computer skills at work. All of the people in my new department are very friendly and nice.

On the other side of the coin, I have gone from number 96 to number 64 on the Spockmarket. It pays to finally be able to watch the episodes and make decisions instead of having to pick my stocks and wonder how they did while I was at work for ten hours.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Very Apt

"Republicans, when you took your oaths of office, you placed your hands on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hands on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

- Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University-

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Looking with new eyes....

The following was written by Isaac Asimov, and without further ado:

I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going to sing our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, all four stanzas.

This was greeted with loud groans. One man closed the door to the kitchen, where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting.

"Thanks, Herb," I said.

"That's all right," he said. "It was at the request of the kitchen staff."

I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas. Let me tell you, those people had never heard it before or had never really listened. I got a standing ovation.

It was not me. It was the anthem.

More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of the anthem and sang all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and prolonged applause. And again, it was the anthem and not me. So now let me tell you how it came to be written.

In 1812 the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather weak country.

At first our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message,

"We have met the enemy and they are ours."

However, the weight of the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England, hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession.

Great Britain now launched a three-pronged attack. The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of New England. The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west. The central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York.

If Baltimore were taken, the nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of the central prong.

The British reached the American coast on August 24, 1814, and immediately took Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12th they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort.

On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer, and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his release. The British captain was willing to negotiate, but the two Americans would have to wait until after the battle.

It was now the night of September 13th and the bombardment of Fort McHenry was about to start. As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying.

Toward morning the bombardment ceased and a dread silence fell. Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.

As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have asked each other over and over,

"Can you see the flag?"

After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events of the night. Called "The Defense of Fort McHenry," it was published in newspapers and swept the nation.

Someone noted that the words fit an old English tune called, "To Anacreon in Heaven" -- a difficult melody with an uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became known as "The Star Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United States.

Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor is speaking.

This is what he asks Key:

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

"Ramparts," in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that surround a fort. The first stanza asks a question. The second gives an answer:

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

"The towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure. In the third stanza I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to act otherwise?? During World War I when the British were our staunchest allies, this third stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
>From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The fourth stanza, hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than the other three and with even deeper feeling:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the next time you have a chance, with new ears. Pay attention to the words. And don't let them ever take it away. Not even one word of it.


~ The author is Isaac Asimov who was born in the former Soviet Union, but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He taught biochemistry at Boston University until he retired in 1958 to become a full-time writer. Asimov had been publishing short stories since the late 1930s, and in 1952 published his first novel. The author of the classic I, Robot series and The Foundation Trilogy, Asimov wrote more than 400 books and won every major science fiction award. He also wrote popular books and essays on science and technology, earning him the nickname "The Great Explainer."

And this one is for Ed.....


I think I know how my friend Ed got to like hot peppers so much....

Friday, September 15, 2006

An election update....

Well, this week we had the primary elections up here in Red Flannel country. In my continuing coverage of the Sheriff's race up here, the results were as follows:

• COUNTY SHERIFF
Nonpartisan Candidate Totals Pct Graph
JULE D. HANSON 1149 41.20
MIKE SIEMS 371 13.30
STEVEN J. GUST 1269 45.50



Now, bear in mind that this was a primary election and people were restricted to voting a "straight party", but these guys are all non-partisan. It appears that our Mr. Gust has pulled ahead by nearly 5% over our present sheriff, Jule Hanson. I was impressed that nearly 30% of all registered voters participated in this primary!

I've said before, "I really don't care for whom you vote, but it is important that you do." I believe that the constitution gave us two duties as citizens, one is to participate on a jury when asked, and the other is to vote. It isn't stated like it is a duty in the constitution, but it really is.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Success in the Spock Market

So, after several weeks of moving from #139 to #121 to #140 to #106 just your basic roller coaster ride, I finally predicted a crash yesterday and bought very conservatively. The end result was that the crash did happen and I "vaulted" to number 77. Finally got into the top 100!!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Nowhere and Now Here

A simple space is the only difference in English, but the vast chasm of meaning.... Last week I was nowhere, this week I am now here. I accepted a job at Marvin today working with computers. I will finally get to work with some of the skills that I have. I don't know exactly how it happened, nor do I understand why things took so long. Suffice it to say that I am happy today. Tomorrow will be another story, I'm sure, but for today I end the day happier than I have been in weeks.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Worth a thousand words.....

Someone else fill in the narrative.........

Fearless Prognostications

I received this in my email this morning. Famous people making projections about the future and how silly they seem in retrospect. Although they seem like they were short-sighted people, the important thing to remember is that we are constantly evolving. If someone would have suggested that a man would walk on the moon within 50 years to someone in 1919 (as World War I was just ending and the entire western world was in recovery) they would have been committed to an asylum. It is important to remember that once upon a time the world was flat. To me, it seems that these people were honestly doing their best to project reasonable assumptions about the future. In a lot of these cases, they were working for large corporations that pursue profitability.

We have dreamers, they are the scientists. The corporate world works more with tangibles. So, although they seem silly, these statements are nowhere near as silly as the idea that human beings are the only sentient life forms in the universe. Billions and Billions of stars surrounded by trillions and trillions of planets.....

Anyway, here are the quotes:

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." ~~~ Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." ~~~ Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." ~~~ The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?" ~~~ Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." ~~~ Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." ~~~ Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" ~~~ David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." ~~~ A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" ~~~ H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." ~~~ Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." ~~~ Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." ~~~ Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than- air flying machines are impossible." ~~~ Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." ~~~ Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" ~~~ Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." ~~~ 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." ~~~ Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." ~~~ Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." ~~~ Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." ~~~ Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." ~~~ Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction". ~~~ Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". ~~~ Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordina ry to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." ~~~ Bill Gates, 1981

Thursday, September 07, 2006

One of those emails that is strange

I truly believe this to be coincidence, and I don't generally go for all of this statistical junk, but this is interesting. It is from an email that I received today and I'll post it below as I got it:

1) New York City has 11 letters

2) Afghanistan has 11 letters.

3) Ramsin Yuseb (The terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin
Towers in 1993) has 11 letters.

4) George W Bush has 11 letters.

5) The two twin towers make an "11"

This could be a mere coincidence, but this gets more interesting:

1) New York is the 11th state.

2) The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight
number 11.

3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers. 9 + 2 = 11

4) Flight 77 which also hit Twin Towers, was carrying 65
passengers ... 6+5 = 11

5) The tragedy was on September 11, or 9/11 as it is now known ...
9 + 1+ 1= 11

6) The date is equal to the US emergency services telephone number
911 ... 9 + 1 + 1 = 11.

Sheer coincidence..? Read on and make up your own mind:

1) The total number of victims inside all the hi-jacked planes was
254 ... 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.

2) September 11 is day number 254 of the calendar year ... Again
2 + 5 + 4 = 11.

3) The Madrid bombing took place on 3/11/2004 ... 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 +
4 = 11.

4) The tragedy of Madrid happened 911 days after the Twin
Towers incident.

Sheer coincidence..? Read on and make up your own mind:

Now this is where things get totally eerie:

The most recognised symbol for the US, after the Stars & Stripes,
is the Eagle. The following verse is taken from the Quran, the Islamic
holy book:

"For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome
Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah
and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more
rejoiced: for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah and there was
peace."

That verse is number 9.11 of the Quran.

Still uncovinced about all of this..?

Try this and see how you feel afterwards, it made my hair stand on
end:

Open Microsoft Word and do the following (TRY THIS FOR REAL)

1. Type in capital letters Q33 NY. This is the flight number of
the
first plane to hit one of the Twin Towers.

2. Highlight the Q33 NY

3. Change the font size to 48.

4. Change the actual font to the WINGDINGS 1

Scary huh?

[Note: OK, so I tried it and it is indeed kind of strange. I still believe that we can manipulate facts and figures to represent anything that we want to, so don't go too overboard on this. ]

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

I just love these.....

"New Words" for Today

The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's(2003) winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like,a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

So, we are beginning to get an answer

I got this in an email today from a friend. It seems that someone is really trying to answer the question, "What did they really expect?" I cannot vouch for the accuracy, but it does seem to make sense.


begin quoted article:

By - Pierre Rehov, documentary filmmaker
On July 15, MSNBC's "Connected" program discussed the July 7th London
attacks.

One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six
documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the Palestinian areas.
Pierre's upcoming film, "Suicide Killers," is based on interviews that he
conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an
attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a request for a Q&A
interview here about his work on the new film.

Q - What inspired you to produce "Suicide Killers," your seventh film?

A - I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a film on PTSD
(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became fascinated with the
personalities of those who had committed those crimes, as they were
described again and again by their victims. Especially the fact that suicide
bombers are all smiling one second before they blow themselves up.

Q - Why is this film especially important?

A - People don't understand the devastating culture behind this unbelievable
phenomenon. My film is not politically correct because it addresses the real
problem, showing the real face of Islam. It points the finger against a
culture of hatred in which the uneducated are brainwashed to a level where
their only solution in life becomes to kill themselves and kill others in
the name of a God whose word, as transmitted by other men, has become their
only certitude.

Q - What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you know that
other experts do not know?

A - I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at the level of
an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a dramatic event,
generally linked to an unacceptable sexual behavior. In this case, we are
talking of kids living all their lives in pure frustration, with no
opportunity to experience sex, love, tenderness or even understanding from
the opposite sex. The separation between men and women in Islam is absolute.
So is contempt toward women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to
a situation of pure anxiety, in which normal behavior is not possible. It is
no coincidence that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated
subconsciously by an overwhelming libido that they not only cannot satisfy
but are afraid of, as if it is the work of the devil.

Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on Earth will
finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those frustrated kids,
killing others and killing themselves to reach this redemption becomes their
only solution.

Q - What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their families
and survivors of suicide bombings?

A - It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are dealing with
seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have their own logic,
which to a certain extent can make sense since they are so convinced that
what they say is true. It is like dealing with pure craziness, like
interviewing people in an asylum, since what they say, is for them, the
absolute truth. I hear a mother saying "Thank God, my son is dead." Her son
had became a shaheed, a martyr, which for her was a greater source of pride
than if he had became an engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize.


This system of values works completely backwards since their interpretation
of Islam worships death much more than life. You are facing people whose
only dream, only achievement goal is to fulfill what they believe to be
their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed or the family of a shaheed.

They don't see the innocent being killed, they only see the impure that they
have to destroy.

Q - You say suicide bombers experience a moment of absolute power, beyond
punishment. Is death the ultimate power?

A - Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the after life. They
are seeking the reward that God has promised them. They work for God, the
ultimate authority, above all human laws. They therefore experience this
single delusional second of absolute power, where nothing bad can ever
happen to them, since they become God's sword.

Q - Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the
psychopathology.

A - Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes, generally
inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with religion. They usually
have a lack of developed personality. Usually they are impressionable
idealists. In the western world they would easily have become drug addicts,
but not criminals. Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don't
see good and evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an
Occidental culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly
battle against their own death anxiety. The only solution to this
deep-seated pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the
afterlife in Paradise.

Q - Are suicide bombers principally motivated by religious conviction?

A - Yes, it is their only conviction. They don't act to gain a territory or
to find freedom or even dignity. They only follow Allah, the supreme judge,
and what He tells them to do.

Q - Do all Muslims interpret jihad and martyrdom in the same way?

A - All Muslim believers believe that, ultimately, Islam will prevail on
earth.They believe this is the only true religion and there is no room, in
their mind, for interpretation. The main difference between moderate Muslims
and extremists is that moderate Muslims don't think they will see the
absolute victory of Islam during their lifetime, therefore they respect
other beliefs. The extremists believe that the fulfillment of the Prophecy
of Islam and ruling the entire world as described in the Koran, is for
today. Each victory of Bin Laden convinces 20 million moderate Muslims to
become extremists.

Q - Describe the culture that manufactures suicide bombers.

A - Oppression, lack of freedom, brain washing, organized poverty, placing
God in charge of daily life, total separation between men and women,
forbidding sex, giving women no power whatsoever, and placing men in charge
of family honor, which is mainly connected to their women's behavior.

Q - What socio-economic forces support the perpetuation of suicide bombings?


A - Muslim charity is usually a cover for supporting terrorist
organizations. But one has also to look at countries like Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia and Iran, which are also supporting the same organizations through
different networks. The ironic thing in the case of Palestinian suicide
bombers is that most of the money comes through financial support from the
Occidental world, donated to a culture that utterly hates and rejects the
West (mainly symbolized by Israel).

Q - Is there a financial support network for the families of the suicide
bombers? If so, who is paying them and how does that affect the decision?

A - There used to be a financial incentive in the days of Saddam Hussein
($25,000 per family) and Yasser Arafat (smaller amounts), but these days are
gone. It is a mistake to believe that these families would sacrifice their
children for money. Although, the children themselves who are very attached
to their families, might find in this financial support another reason to
become suicide bombers. It is like buying a life insurance policy and then
committing suicide.

Q - Why are so many suicide bombers young men?

A - As discussed above, libido is paramount. Also ego, because this is a
sure way to become a hero. The shaheeds are the cowboys or the firemen of
Islam. Shaheed is a positively reinforced value in this culture. And what
kid has never dreamed of becoming a cowboy or a fireman?

Q - What role does the U.N. play in the terrorist equation?

A - The U.N. is in the hands of Arab countries and third world or
ex-communist countries. Their hands are tied. The U.N. has condemned Israel
more than any other country in the world, including the regime of Castro,
Idi Amin or Kaddahfi. By behaving this way, the U.N. leaves a door open by
not openly condemning terrorist organizations. In addition, through UNRWA,
the U.N. is directly tied to terror organizations such as Hamas,
representing 65 percent of their apparatus in the so-called Palestinian
refugee camps. As a support to Arab countries, the U.N. has maintained
Palestinians in camps with the hope to "return" into Israel for more than 50
years, therefore making it impossible to settle those populations, which
still live in deplorable conditions. Four hundred million dollars are spent
every year, mainly financed by U.S. taxes, to support 23,000 employees of
UNRWA, many of whom belong to terrorist organizations (see Congressman Eric
Cantor on this subject, and in my film "Hostages of Hatred").

Q - You say that a suicide bomber is a 'stupid bomb and a smart bomb'
simultaneously. Explain what you mean.

A - Unlike an electronic device, a suicide killer has until the last second
the capacity to change his mind. In reality, he is nothing but a platform
representing interests which are not his, but he doesn't know it.

Q - How can we put an end to the madness of suicide bombings and terrorism
in general?

A - Stop being politically correct and stop believing that this culture is a
victim of ours. Radical Islamism today is nothing but a new form of Naziism.
Nobody was trying to justify or excuse Hitler in the 1930s. We had to defeat
him in order to make peace one day with the German people.

Q - Are these men traveling outside their native areas in large numbers?
Based on your research, would you predict that we are beginning to see a new
wave of suicide bombings outside the Middle East?

A - Every successful terror attack is considered a victory by the radical
Islamists. Everywhere Islam expands there is regional conflict. Right now,
there are thousands of candidates for martyrdom lining up in training camps
in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Inside Europe, hundreds of illegal
mosques are preparing the next step of brain washing to lost young men who
cannot find a satisfying identity in the Occidental world. Israel is much
more prepared for this than the rest of the world will ever be. Yes, there
will be more suicide killings in Europe and the U.S. Sadly, this is only the
beginning.


end quoted article

Remember When

The following is an excerpt from an email thread that was discussing "the good old days," and I thought it was pretty neat. Admittedly, some of it won't pertain to the younger folks out there, but the older ones should be able to identify. It does seem that we are being a little overprotective of kids these days...

My Mom used to.....

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes too, but I can't remember getting E-coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring).

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training
athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell
us how much safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option...even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in the halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting the wet spot. How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could have sued the school system.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative
attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches. I can't understand it.

Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion or condoms (we wouldn't have known what either was anyway) but they did give us a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started getting the sniffles. What an archaic health system we had then.

Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, PlayStation, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable stations.

I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the denial of the dangers that could have befallen us as we trekked off each day about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant 20, built forts out of branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over who got to be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner thinking, letting us play on that lot?
He should have been locked up for not putting up a fence around the property, complete with a self-closing gate and an infrared intruder
alarm.

Oh yeah...and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played king of the hill on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48 cent bottle of Mercurochrome and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked (physical abuse) here too... and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee.

Kids choked down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks (Remember why Tonka trucks were made tough... it wasn't so that they could take the rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car with leaded gas.

Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am sure that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we went on two week vacations.

I should probably sue the folks now for the danger they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the f amily tent.

Summers were spent behind the push lawn mower and I didn't even know that mowers came with motors until I was 13 (I was in my 20's before I used one without an automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive). How sick were my parents?

Of course my parents weren't the only psychos. I recall Billy from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front porch just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes?

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we survive?

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
"Home free all!" made perfect sense?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?
Rolling down a grass covered hill at the park was the best!


War was a card game?
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
You went 'Trick or Treating" without your parents and people gave you apples with nickels in them? And you weren't afraid to eat the apples?

How many do you remember?

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?


When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Nylons came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels? (except the nuns, of course!)


You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped
without asking, all for free, every time?
And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes, or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner
at a real restaurant with your parents?

Schools threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,
peel out, lay rubber, or watch submarine races.
People went "steady"?
No one ever asked where the car keys were
because they were always in the car,
in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends
and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a... "
and playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals
because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Basically we were in fear for our lives,
but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, or gangs.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!
But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Send this on to someone who can still remember
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy,
the Lone Ranger, Winkie Dink,
Nellie Bell , Roy and Dale, Trigger, and Buttermilk.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games,
roller skating, gutter ball, and visits to the pool,
Drinking Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

I am sharing this with you today
because it ended with a double dog dare to pass it on.
To remember what a double dog dare is, read on.
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between
old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes
Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
Blackjack, Clove, and Teaberry chewing gum
Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Fliers

Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Federal 9-2399).
Party lines

Peashooters
Howdy Dowdy
45 RPM records
Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins
Studebakers
Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
The Fort Apache Play Set
Lincoln Logs
5 cent packs of baseball cards -
with that awful pink slab of bubble gum
Penny candy

Some of that is way past my age, but you get the idea....